| Another TechCrunch Disrupt SF is in the books, and the winner wants to help us go wireless. Also, Google buys a big chunk of yet another smartphone maker. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for September 21, 2017. 1. Disrupt SF 2017 Battlefield winner is Pi Not the mathematical Pi – a near-field wireless charging solution. It's actually a pretty cool piece of tech, which allows people to just place their phones near an Echo-like piece of hardware to charge up. The technology isn't even that lossy relative to other kinds of contact chargers, and it can be tuned to work with industry standards like Qi, which Apple is using on its latest iPhones. 
2. Google buys a significant chunk of HTC's hardware business Google has picked up a number of HTC hardware employees in a $1.1 billion deal that also gives the search giant non-exclusive access to a lot of HTC's mobile device IP. This is part of Google's new hardware strategy, and should help it continue to make devices like its forthcoming Pixel smartphone successors. 3. Zenefits isn't an insurance brokerage any more Zenefits based a lot of its value proposition on being an insurance broker as well as an easy to use benefits platform, but now it's no longer a broker. That's also what got it in trouble and resulted in the ouster of founder Parker Conrad as CEO, so it seems like the startup wanted to put those days behind it. 4. Citymapper works with Gett on shared taxi routes Citymapper continues to branch out from its core navigation app business. The company previously introduced its own London bus route, and now it's working with Uber competitor Gett to create shared commuter routes using black cabs. 5. YC wants investors to be able to back its startups using blockchain Sam Altman says he wants to use blockchain tech to help Y Combinator "democratize access to investing." And it sounds like he's actually thought more about how they can do that, according to sources. It's an ICO world now, and traditional VCs just live in it. 6. Peter Thiel being considered for Trump intelligence advisory board Investor Peter Thiel is looking like the frontrunner candidate for Donald Trump's intelligence advisory board chairperson role. This wouldn't actually give him directly control over the country's spies but it still has to make you somewhat nervous. 7. Tesla is working on its own in-house AI self-driving chips Tesla might look to mimic Apple's competitive hardware advantages in the autonomous car industry: It's working with AMD on designing its own silicon for artificial intelligence application processing as it pertains to its self-driving software. | 
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